Thursday, August 30. 2012

Christian Petzold’s feature film BARBARA will, as the official German entry, join the submissions for the 85th Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. This was decided today by an independent jury in Berlin, which was appointed by German Films to preside over the selection process.

The nine-person independent jury, under the chairmanship of Stefan Schubert, substantiated their decision as follows: “The film BARBARA is convincing in its great formal clarity and strong female figure, who, torn between the contradiction of individual freedom and social responsibility, has to make a personal decision.”

Director Christian Petzold and the film’s producers Florian Koerner von Gustorf and Michael Weber were elated by the jury’s decision: “We are very pleased about the jury’s selection of our film as the German submission for the Oscar®. After the Berlinale and successful releases in Germany and France, this honor comes at a perfect moment for the upcoming releases of BARBARA in the USA, Great Britain, Spain and Italy.” ((and let the blogger add: its TIFF selection and upcoming Canadian run))

The film was released in German cinemas in March 2012 and has since pulled in over 350,000 admissions. At the Berlinale 2012, Christian Petzold was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Direction for BARBARA; the film also received the Silver Lola at the German Film Awards in the category Best Film.

On 15 January 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will announce which five films have been nominated from all of the international entries to go forward in the final lineup to compete for the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. The official Academy Awards® ceremony will take place on 24 February 2013.

Wednesday, September 12, 5-6pm
Director Margarethe von Trotta and co-director Pamela Katz in conversation with journalist Marc Glassman
on the TIFF World Premiere “Hannah Arendt”, starring Barbara Sukowa
“Hannah Arendt is a woman who fits into my personal mold of historically important women that I have portrayed in my films. ‘I want to understand`, was one of her guiding principles. I feel that applies to myself and my films as well.” Margarethe von Trotta in an interview on goethe.de

Margarethe von Trotta is back at TIFF with a Special Presentation --after her Rosenstrasse gala in 2003 and Visions in 2009-- with her much anticipated drama around Hannah Arendt and the famous Jewish thinker's controversial take on the Eichmann trials.

Thursday, September 13, 5-6pm
Director Mark Wiese in conversation with writer and filmmaker Ali Kazimi
on the celebrated doc "Camp 14 - Total Control Zone" that takes a look at North Korea’s prison campsCamp 14 was one of the best-reviewed films at Locarno this year; the NZZ newspaper had this to say: "Wiese lets Shin Dong Hyuk tell his story and complements it with statements by former camp guards and torturers. There is only little secret footage from the camps to be had, but Ali Soozandeh's animated scenes evoke a place that could be called hell on earth, if this wouldn't belittle what people can do to each other. Marc Wiese has found the right form -- he omits nothing, knowing that some things which aren't shown but created in our imagination will be all the more resounding."

both events
doors open 4:45pm
limited seating, first come first served
at the Goethe-Institut Toronto, 100 University Ave. 2nd floor

Thank you to our friends and partners at German Films and TIFF for their support.

Tuesday, August 28. 2012

A good year for German film: The Vancouver International Film Festival (27 September – 12 October 2012) has just announced its German line-up, with two dozen films just as impressive as TIFF's on the other side of the country:

Monday, August 27. 2012

An Australian and two French directors are walking into a film studio … and they want to make films in German. Here’s an intriguing phenomenon I detect in this year’s TIFF line-up: Films by international directors made in the German language. Now the reverse is not surprising and has been practiced for years. This year, Berlin’s Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) is back at TIFF with his adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel “Cloud Atlas” with an A-list Hollywood cast – shot in English. Similarly last year’s Anonymous Shakespeare ‘thriller’ by German Hollywood director Roland Emmerich was an English-language production. German is often restricted in international productions to shouted Nazi orders –Schnell schnell! Jawoll!, you know the predictable drill from action dramas to Hitler parodies— or, less often, poetic interventions and quotations (see Özcan Alper’s Future Lasts Forever at last year's TIFF).

The likes of Wenders and Herzog have, of course, been oscillating between their native tongue and the lingua franca of the international film business. But three international directors shooting, roughly at the same time, in German (a language each is more or less fluent in)? Is German newly … sexy? artsy? exotic? different?

Australia’s entry Lore, fresh from the Sydney Film Festival and from winning the Prix du Public UBS at the Locarno International Film Festival, is getting praise especially for teenage lead Saskia Rosendahl, a newcomer in her native Germany, who pretty much went straight into a not exactly small international production. Lore is based on the eponymous novella “The Dark Room“ by Booker Prize-nominated Rachel Seiffert. Watch the trailer for the upcoming TIFF Special Presentation of the German co-produced World War II period piece.

Director Cate Shortland reveals online how her son, video operator Jonathan Shortland-Krawitz, helped to keep her on track when she was facing the challenges of making the German-language film in Europe, written for the screen by her and Robin Mukherjee.

French director Sylvie Michel made it straight into TIFF with her first feature, in German: Our little Differences (Die feinen Unterschiede) is the story of two parents, a doctor and his cleaning lady, with very different approaches to bringing up their teenage children. Having grown up in the South of France and Paris, she has made Berlin, New York and L.A. home for the past 30 years, working in different areas of filmmaking and across cultures and languages, amongst other as a script supervisor for Wim Wenders, Mika Kaurismäki, Christian Carion, Agnieszka Holland and Nana Djordjadze.

Autrement, la Molussie by Nicolas Rey (of 2006 Wavelengths’ Schuss!) is an award-winning philosophical fable that draws on Günther Anders’ prescient anti-fascist novel "The Molussian Catacomb" and is presented on 9 reels of dreamy 16mm film shown in random order. It won the Grand Prize at Cinéma du Réel at the Centre Pompidou and was shown at this year’s Berlinale Forum Expanded. Rey enlisted his German friend Peter Hoffmann to help him choose the dialogue, all readings from Anders, in German.

I remember talking to Andreas Hartmann, a talented young German filmmaker fresh out of Konrad Wolf Film School outside of Berlin, who had shot the stunning and sensitive documentary “Days of Rain” in Vietnam, really without understanding two words of what he was filming and directing as he was doing so. Laughingly he described how he understood for the first time what was actually being said in his footage through a translator in the editing room and how he had mainly “felt” his way –brilliantly and spot on—through the Vietnamese family’s struggle of survival for over a year. And how a strong friendship, largely non-verbally, had developed between them. Interesting to see what can happen with or despite language in the medium of film. It's exciting to see how especially first-rate actors increasingly move between languages and cultures (beyond the obvious Hollywood lure), from Viggo Mortensen --in Spanish-- in the Argentinian-Spanish-German thriller Everybody has a plan to Sebastian Koch (of The Lives of Others fame) as the lead --a Greek pirate-- with Catherine Deneuve in the (English language) Greek-Russian co-pro God loves Caviar.

Looking forward to those films this September at TIFF and to talking to filmmakers and actors about their language choices.

Thursday, August 23. 2012

Here's a visual teaser to our personal selection from the over two dozen German films and co-productions at this year's TIFF, with a respectable number of films coming from the Berlinale, Locarno and other international festivals as well as exciting premieres.

Interestingly, another drama by a (West) German director on life in the GDR in the early 1980s with Stasi references has also been invited to Toronto: Shores of Hope by Student Academy Award winner Toke C. Hebbeln, starring Alexander Fehling, August Diehl --both recently featured at GOETHE FILMS @ TIFF Bell Lightbox in our "Shooting Stars" series-- and Ronald Zehrfeld (see Barbara above, as well as our Dominik Graf special In the Face of Crime this spring, in which he was the lead). German Trailer.

For more on the Australian-German Special Presentation of the World War II drama Lore, see my blog entry on German language films.

Okay, I know she is from Toronto --but after a decade or so on the Berlin scene, we can claim a part of the queen of punk, right? The title of Peaches' (Berlin-based) debut is self-explanatory and programmatic: Peaches does herself.Look behind the scenes of the live "musical" her debut film is based on. Plus Peaches In the making of her performance show at HAU Theatre Berlin.

And here's the reverse case: Tom Tykwer can work in Hollywood -- he remains a Berlin director. You will by now have heard about his literary sci-fi adaptation Cloud Atlas. Released so far are the (3) Directors' Commentary and trailer (and trailer reviews online, if you are really interested).

Over on the arthouse front, under no circumstances will I miss German photography legend Thomas Demand taking his restaging approach to the moving image with Pacific Sun
The film installation is based on dizzying CCTV footage of the Pacific Sun Cruise Liner in heavy seas.

Also at the top of my TIFF schedule, fresh from Locarno, a doc that I am as terrified of watching as I know I must:Camp 14 - Total Control Zone (trailer)
In German, director Marc Wiese describes the the creation, shoot and background of Camp 14 , with animator Alireza Darvish explaining his role in the film.

Unfortunately no trailer for Margarethe von Trotta’s world premiere of “Hannah Arendt” yet -- but I can tell you that you will be able to see von Trotta live at a Goethe Directors Talk!

I am torn where to direct my filmic attention on September 5: the electrifying energy on the eve of TIFF 2012 or the grandmaster of New German Cinema, Werner Herzog, turning 70. Let's celebrate him early then (as it is my birthday today and I am about to have cake anyway).

It seems only right to pay homage to his physicality and prowess, going strong into his 8th decade (and his 7th decade of filmmaking). I actually had to do the math several times to believe it: yes, Werner Herzog Stipetić, born in Bavaria in 1942, into the bombing raids at the height of World War II. In 2003, I was lucky enough to do an interview with Herzog for Point of View magazine entitled "Werner Herzog: The Filmmaker as Athlete" on the occasion of the release of Wheel of Time as well as his Outstanding Achievement Award at Hot Docs that year. Here is an excerpt from that interview that still holds true (and reveals his inimitable natural swagger).

How does a self-proclaimed athlete filmmaker translate the essence of spirituality, of the ethereal mandala into film? How does a Western filmmaker, who says of himself that he is never detached, work in a culture where attachment is regarded to be the root of suffering? POV wanted to know the answer to these and a myriad of other questions. Herzog didn’t disappoint us. He proved to be as open and baffling, as contentious and engaging as his reputation has made him out to be.

Jutta Brendemühl: A lot of your work seems infused by the mythical, transcendental. Do you have some sort of metaphysical set of beliefs that comes to work in your films?

Werner Herzog: No.

JB: Are you detached from these questions, even in a film like “Wheel of Time”?

WH: No, I’m physical, not really metaphysical. I’m an athlete, or I used to be an athlete.

JB: …thus also the fascination with the mountains… Related to that I wanted to ask you about the cross-cultural experience. You were ((in Tibet)) as a Western filmmaker and you approach these people that, in a way, live in a different universe. Where are you between closeness and detachment when you do these kinds of projects with very different cultures?

WH: I’m never detached, I’m always --and this is a very good example-- very, very close, and I’m physically curious and you see how the camera immerses itself in the mayhem of crowds of pilgrims struggling over some consecrated dumplings. Anyone else would have shot it from a tripod, from some distance with a long lens. Whenever there was mayhem and piling up of scrambling pilgrims and broken bones (there were literally severely injured people on the ground), the camera always sticks right into it, physically. And it only does so because I’m so curious and I’m not detached. I’m not distant. I want to go to the very centre of the mayhem.

JB: In one shot, there's the cameraman’s thumb in the picture…

WH: That’s the cinematographer's. Yes, I left it in because some fragment of one of these dumplings flew right at the lens and you see the thumb of the cinematographer, clearing the lens. But he keeps on filming. There’s a certain bravado (laughs). ...

Many happy returns, lieber Werner Herzog! Looking forward to the next film, which he is of course already working on, as he told me at his last Berlinale premiere earlier this year. I will entitle our next interview "Werner Herzog: At the Centre of Mayhem".

To have you celebrate along with Herzog, we will raffle 7 DVDs by/with/about Werner Herzog for 7 lucky winners (1 DVD each). To enter, please email us at arts@toronto.goethe.org until 7 September and tell us how you heard about this blog! Only the winners will be notified (by the end of September). Viel Glück!

Tuesday, August 21. 2012

• We are happy to continue working with TIFF as they keep presenting cutting-edge German films. Join us at our Directors Talks at the Goethe-Institut this September, where we engage German directors and actors in conversation. Watch this blog for announcements over the next few days & weeks!

• The Goethe-Institut’s own film program brings the best of German film to Canadian audiences. GOETHE FILMS @ TIFF Bell Lightbox is “one of the better-kept secrets in the Toronto art house sphere” (blogTO.com). This season: a continuation of our exploration of the interplay of Culture & Economy.

• This November and December TIFF Bell Lightbox, in association with the Munich Film Museum & the Goethe-Institut, will present the most comprehensive retrospective of influential German film, theatre, and opera director Werner Schroeter (1945–2010) ever assembled in Canada.

• For the 8th time, two dozen European countries are coming together to present the European Union Film Festival. Enjoy the best of European cinema from November 15-24. And thank you Toronto for our 2011 Audience Award!

• To celebrate our 50th anniversary in Canada, we have commissioned German artists fettFilm to light up our windows at King & University this fall with the video installation “Late Night @ Goethe”, a Virtual Anniversary Celebration.

• Don’t forget that you can borrow the latest German films on DVD from our Goethe-Institut Library.

50 years of Canadian-German film encounters -- Thank you to all our partners & audiences!

Monday, August 20. 2012

It's never too early for Oscar speculations. German Films today released the list of films considered for Germany's Academy Awards 2013 entry (three of which you can catch at TIFF next month):

Nine films were submitted to German Films by German producers for consideration as the German entry for the 85th Oscar® competition in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. The screenings of the submitted films for the independent expert jury will be held in Berlin on 29 and 30 August, 2012. The title to be sent into the running for Germany will be announced on 30 August.

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Copyright: Michelle KayFollow us around the world of film. Our blogger Jutta Brendemühl is the Goethe-Institut Toronto's Program Curator and happy to hear from you.

Jutta is lucky to do what she loves: arts & cultural programming & writing across the genres, through a global lens. She has worked with Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Rauschenberg, Wim Wenders, and other luminaries, and is one of the Directors of the European Union Film Festival Toronto. Her reviews are indexed on IMDb; bylines have appeared in POV, ScreenPrism, Vague Visages, Die Zeit. She is a fellow of the Toronto Cultural Leaders Lab.

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German Film @ Canada blog

Festival news & original reviews, insights & updates, background & interviews.
The latest on German film in Canada, Germany & beyond.
Highlighting the impressive international presence of German directors & productions.
Announcing Goethe-Institut screenings and those of our major industry partners.For experts & fans of German film.